


The x Boxcar x Kids

by FencingRealities



Category: Hunter X Hunter, The Boxcar Children - Gertrude Chandler Warner
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - 1920s, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Gen, Light-Hearted
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-22 03:13:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8270428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FencingRealities/pseuds/FencingRealities
Summary: Leorio, Kurapika, and Gon found each other and take care of one another. They have no parents, no other family—except for Gon's uncle they don’t care to see—and no home . . . until the night they find the boxcar. Old, rusty, lonely, and abandoned in the woods, it’s the perfect home for four brave children on their own. However, another runaway ties the family together, but puts them all in peril.





	1. The Flight

**Author's Note:**

> This is a heavily edited and changed copy of the 1922 version of The Boxcar Children, everything from the names to the plot's course.

About seven o'clock one hot summer evening, a strange family moved into the little village of Middlesex. Nobody knew where they came from, or who they were, but the neighbors soon made up their minds what they thought of the strangers, for the father or mother were nowhere to be seen and the children did not seem to have the need to be anywhere as the sun began to set. The eldest- a boy of seventeen merely milled around the lit town square asking about any barns or stables that would let them stay the night in exchange for labor. Toward eight o'clock, a pretty, capable-looking boy of fifteen came out of the shadows, where he had kept watch on a young child chase another kid who lived their around the park, and bought a loaf of bread at the baker's. That was all the villagers learned about the newcomers that night.

"There are three children," said the bakeshop woman to her husband the next day, referring to the gossip she had heard from their neighbor, Tonpa the farmer "and they’re apparently orphans. They must have some money, for the blonde boy paid for the bread with a dollar bill." The woman chewed on her thumb while the anxiety in her voice grated her husband’s ears.

"Make them pay for everything they get," growled the husband, who was a hard man with silver flowing hair. "Their income is limited, and soon they will be only beggars."

The baker woman wrung her bandaged hands together; she had burned them a few days prior. “I just don’t want little K-”

“Shut it. This shop is _your_ little hobby, and I don’t have the time to detract from running the mercenary trade to help you keep it afloat or deal with the distractions it drags in.”

This happened sooner than he thought. The next day, the two oldest boys—Leorio and Kurapika—came to ask the bakeshop woman to direct them to where they could find work. They had no quarter, and the looks on their faces told her they didn’t have anyone to turn to.

She obliged speaking with them willingly enough, for someone had already closed shop, but it was clear that she did not expect to be bothered with three strange children, with the bakery on her hands and five children of her own.

"Haven't you any other folks?" she asked the children with thinly veiled annoyance. The woman used a paper fan to cool herself in the humid summer air.

"I have an uncle in Greenfield," spoke up the youngest child before his blonde friend could clap his hand over his mouth.

"Hush, Gon," he said anxiously.

This made the bakeshop woman suspicious. "What's the matter with your uncle?" she asked.

"He doesn't like children at all." replied the oldest boy reluctantly.

"Did you ever see him?"

"Gon has. Once he saw him."

"Well, did he treat you cruelly?" asked the woman, turning upon Gon.

"Oh, he didn't see me," replied Gon. "He was just passing through our—where I used to live—and my Mito pointed him out to me."

“His late foster mother.” The oldest clarified before the the inquiry even appeared in her eyes.

"Where did you use to live?" went on the questioner, but none of the children could be made to tell.

"We’ve been quite capable alone thus far, haven't we, Leorio?" asked Kurapika.

"If I have anything to say about it!" declared Leorio.

"I will stay in the house with you tonight," said the woman at last, hunched over, "and tomorrow we will see what can be done."

The three children went to bed in the kitchen just as the stars began to appear, and gave the baker woman the only other bed in the house. The three surmised that this woman did not live here because their weren’t enough rooms to support a family, yet she wore a ring on her finger and her words implied she didn’t stay overnight normally. They knew that she did not at once go to bed, but sat by the window in the dark, waiting for something. Voices traveling through the gap between the floor and the kitchen door, suddenly they heard her talking to someone.

"What were you doing outside?" Kurapika heard her ask in a whispy shriek. She continued before the person had a chance to respond. “You know you’re going to inherit your father’s business—the best mercenary company in the whole country—and you go outside and _play_ when you finished the tasks Papa assigned you? You should have asked him what to do next. This is an important time for you growing up and I do not want you distracted!”

“... I played tag with a new friend.” The voice that finally replied was barely audible.

“Don’t _lie._ ” She cut. “Ooooohohohohoh, if your back wasn’t already so lacerated I’d tell you to get the switch! When will you learn?” Her voice went from sharp to mawkish in a single sentence. “But no one could replace your amazing potential, sweetie, so I couldn’t put those kids to work even if I wanted to.”

Leorio’s breath hitched in his throat.

“The youngest one is the same age as me, Ma. He couldn’t handle killing someone.”

“Which is why he’d be sent to an orphanage. The other two are old enough to make it or die on the streets. But don’t worry, I’ll help them tell me who their uncle is so I don’t have to do that.”

There wasn’t a single noise after that, and Kurapika and Leorio heard her snoring heavily. They sat up in the dark.

"Mustn't we surely run away?" whispered Kurapika in Leorio's ear.

"Obviously! I forgot they don’t have any laws to protect children from child labor in the Dentora Region." hissed Leorio. "Take only what we need most. We must be far off before morning, or they will catch us."

Kurapika sat still for a moment, thinking, for every motion he made must count.

_I will take both loaves of bread and our matches,_ he thought, _and our bags. Leorio has his knife, and all our money is in my pocket_. He drew it out and counted it in the dark, squinting his eyes in the faint light of the moon. It amounted to nearly four dollars.

"You'll have to carry Gon until he gets waked up," whispered Kurapika. "If we wake him up here, he might speak too loudly before we tell him to shush."

Kurapika tiptoed over to the tin box on the table, drew out the two loaves of bread, and slipped them into his satchel. He peered around the room for the last time, and then dropped two small clean towels and a cake of soap into the bag.

"All right. Pick him up, and make sure his backpack doesn’t fall off" he said to Leorio.

Leorio bent over the sleeping child and lifted him carefully. Kurapika put on his satchel, picked up Leorio’s briefcase, turned the doorknob ever so softly, opened the door ever so slowly, and they tiptoed out in a ghostly procession.

Kurapika shut the door with as much care as he had opened it, listened to the bakeshop woman's heavy snoring for a moment, and then they turned and picked their way without a sound to the country road.

"She may wake up before morning, you know," whispered Leorio. "We must do our fastest walking before then. If we can only get to another town before they find out we're gone, they won't know which way to go."

Kurapika agreed, and they all walked briskly along in the faint moonlight. "How far can you carry Gon?"

"Oh, at least a mile," said Leorio confidently, although his arms were beginning to ache. Gon was eight years old, and he was a strong, healthy boy as well.

" _I_ think we could all walk faster if we woke him up," said Kurapika decidedly. "We could each take his hand and almost carry him along."

Leorio knelt by the roadside and set the little fellow against his knee.

"Come on, Gon, you must wake up now and walk or we’ll be caught by a psychotic woman and you’ll never see us again." said Kurapika coaxingly.

"Huh?" Gon didn’t catch that and mumbled with his eyes shut, trying to lie down again.

"Let me try," Leorio offered softly.

"Say, Gon, you know how little Kon the Foxbear ran away to find a nice warm bed for the winter? Now, you play you're Kon, and Kurapika and I will help you along, and we'll find a bed."

“I don’t need to pretend; I’ve played with Kon in the autumn.” Leorio's little plan woke him up rather well, not to mention without crushing moral. Gon was never too cross to listen to the wonderful stories Leorio made up about the foxbear that lived in the woods by his Mito’s place. He stood up bravely and marched along, yawning, while his “big brothers” almost swung him between them.

Not a soul passed them on the country road. All the houses they saw were dark and still. And when the first faint streaks of morning light showed in the sky, all three children were almost staggering with sleep.

"I _need_ to sleep, Leorio," murmured Kurapika at last. Gon was asleep already, and Leorio was carrying him again.

"The first place we come to, then," panted Leorio.

Kurapika said nothing, but he kept his eyes open.

Finally he caught Leorio's sleeve. "Couldn't we make that haystack do?" he asked, pointing across a newly mown field.

“We could," said Leorio thankfully. "At least it’s huge! I was too sleepy to see it, I guess."

"And see how far away from the farmhouse and barn it is, too." echoed Kurapika.

The sight gave them new courage. They climbed over two stone walls, got across a brook somehow with the heavy child, and arrived at the haystack.

Leorio laid his brother down and stretched his aching arms, while Kurapika began to burrow into the haystack without waiting for him.

“That’s rude of you!”

"Here's his nest," interrupted Kurapika sleepily, taking his head out of the deep round hole he had made. Leorio lifted the child into the opening and was pleased to see that he curled up instantly, smiling in his sleep.

Kurapika pulled wisps of hay over the opening so that it was absolutely invisible, and then proceeded to dig out a similar burrow for himself.

"It’s safe to stay for a while, right, Leorio?" he murmured, digging with his eyes shut.

"Sure," replied Leorio. "You're an old brick, Kurapika. Get in, and I'll pull the hay over the hole."

“Be quiet. I can kick you in the face.” He was already curled up in his nest, which was hidden so completely that Leorio spoke again to his to see if he were there. Then he wriggled himself backward into the haycock without stopping to hollow it out, pulled a handful of hay over his head, and laid his head on his arm.

Just as he did so he heard a heavy voice say, "Now, then, lass, git along!" Then he heard the rumble of a milk wagon coming down a nearby lane, and he realized thankfully that they had hidden themselves just before the first farmer in the neighborhood had set off toward Middlesex with his milk cans.

_He will say he didn't meet us coming this way,_ thought Leorio, _so they will hunt for us the other way. And that will give us time to cover a lot more ground._

He dropped asleep just as the roosters all over the valley began to answer each other.


	2. The Second Night

The roosters crowed and the hens clucked; the farmer's wife began to get breakfast, and the three children slept on. Dinner time came and went, and still they slept, for it must be remembered that they had been awake and walking during the whole night. In fact, it was nearly seven o'clock in the evening when they awoke. Luckily, all the others awoke before Gon.

"Can you hear me, Kurapika?" said Leorio, speaking very low through the wall of hay.

"Yes," answered Kurapika softly. "Let's make one big room of our nests."

No sooner said than done. The boys worked quickly and quietly until they could see each other. They pressed the hay back firmly until they had made their way into Gon's little room.

"Hello, foxbear!" whispered Leorio playfully.

And Gon at once made up his mind to laugh, but laughing out loud was almost as bad as a child crying at the dour situation, so Leorio took his little brother on the hay beside him and talked to him seriously.

"Now, listen! When I tell you to _keep still_ after this, that means you're to stop crying if you're crying, or stop laughing if you're laughing, and be just as still as you possibly can. If you don't mind, you will be in danger. Do you understand?"

"Um… I don’t like it, but I understand. You guys will do the same, right? So we’ll never be separated?" asked Gon.

"Absolutely!" said Leorio.

Gon thought a minute. "Alright. Can I still ask for things, though?" he said.

"Indeed you can!" cried Kurapika and Leorio together. "What is it you want?"

"I'm _awful_ hungry," said Gon with a pat to his belly, sticking out his tongue.

Leorio's brow cleared. "We're just going to have supper—or is it breakfast?"

Kurapika drew out the fragrant loaf of bread. He cut it with Leorio's jackknife into four quarters, and he and Leorio took the two crusty ends themselves.

"That's because we have to be the strongest, and crusts make you strong," explained Kurapika.

“As long as I get the crusts next time, then!” exclaimed Gon. He didn’t want to be left out.

"We will stay here till dark, and then we'll go on with our journey," said Leorio cheerfully.

"I want a drink," announced Gon.

"A drink you shall have," Leorio promised, "but you'll have to wait till it's really dark. If we should creep out to the brook now, and any one saw us—" He did not finish his sentence, but Gon realized that he must wait.

He was much refreshed from his long sleep, and felt very lively. Leorio had to try harder than normal to keep him amused, even with Cinnamon Bear and his five brothers.

At last Leorio peeped out. It was after nine o'clock. There were lights in the farmhouse still, but they were all upstairs.

"We can at least get a drink now," he said, and the children crept quietly to the noisy little brook not far from the haystack.

"Cup," said Gon.

"No, you'll have to lie down and drink with your mouth," Kurapika explained, then demonstrated. Gon learned quickly and followed suit. Never did water taste so cool and delicious as it did that night to the thirsty children.

When they had finished drinking they jumped the brook, ran quickly over the fields to the wall, and once more found themselves on the road.

"If we meet any one," said Kurapika, "we must all crouch behind bushes until he has gone by."

They walked along in the darkness with light hearts. They were no longer tired or hungry. Their one thought was to get away from Gon’s scary uncle, if possible. They refused to let Gon be miserable.

"If we can find a big town," said Gon, "won't it be better to stay in than a little town?"

"Why?" asked Leorio, puffing up the hill.

"Well, you see, there are so many people in a big town, nobody will notice us—"

"And in a little village everyone would be talking about us," finished Leorio admiringly. "You've got brains!"

He had hardly said this when a wagon was heard behind them in the distance. It was coming from Middlesex. Without a word, the three children sank down behind the bushes like frightened rabbits. They could plainly hear their hearts beat. The horse trotted nearer, and then began to walk up the hill.

"If we hear nothing in Townsend," they heard a man say, "I will have plainly done our duty.”

It was the baker's husband’s voice!

“Search as you will, but I will not be tiring out my horse with going a full day, from morning until night!"

“But we need to find him! I fear for our boy’s safety!” She countered loudly.

“Woman,” the mercenary silenced “He is my son. He will come home.”

There was silence spotted with weak sniffles as the horse pulled the creaky wagon.

"At least we will go on to Townsend tonight," he continued, "and tell them to watch out. We need not go to Intervale, for I taught him the proper distance to keep from a target while retreating. Catching him will be more tedious than most."

“He may not have come this way.” replied his wife. “The milkman did not see him, did he?"

The baker's reply was lost, for the horse had reached the hilltop, where he broke into a canter.

It was some minutes before the children dared to creep out of the bushes again.

"One thing is sure," said Leorio, when he got his breath. "We will not go to Townsend."

"And we _will_ go to Intervale," said Kurapika.

Gon simply stared at the top of the hill where the wagon had disappeared, thinking to himself.

With a definite goal in mind at last, the children set out again with a better spirit. They walked until two o'clock in the morning, stopping often this time to rest and to drink from the horses' watering troughs. Then they came upon a fork in the road with a white signpost shining in the moonlight.

"Townsend, four miles; Intervale, six miles," read Leorio aloud. "Anyone feel able to walk six more miles?"

He grinned. No one had the least idea how far they had already walked.

"We'll go that _way_ at least," said Kurapika finally.

"That we will," agreed Leorio, picking up his brother for a change, and piggy-back carried him.

They went ahead. The new road was a pleasant woody one, with grass growing in the middle. The kids could not see the grass, but they could feel it as they walked. "Not many people pass this way, I guess," remarked Kurapika. Just then he caught his toe in something and almost fell, but Leorio caught him.

The two boys stooped down to examine the obstruction.

"Hay. It must have fallen off somebody's load," said Kurapika.

"We'll take it with us," Leorio decided wisely. "Load on all you can carry, Kurapika."

So the odd little party trudged on for nearly three hours, laden with hay and keeping their complaints internal, until they found that the road ended in a cart path through the woods.

"Oh, great!" exclaimed Kurapika, almost ready to snap from exhaustion.

"What's the matter?" demanded Gon in astonishment as he hopped down from Leorio’s back. "Isn't the woods a good place to sleep? It’s super fun!”

“We can't sleep in the road, you know." Leorio added.

"It does seem better and further away from people than a road," admitted Kurapika, "and it's almost morning."

As they stood still at the entrance to the woods, they heard the rumble of a train. It roared down the valley at a great rate and passed them on the other side of the woods, thundering along toward the city.

"Never mind the train, either," remarked Leorio. "It isn't so _awfully_ near; and even if it were, it couldn't see us."

He set his brother down and peered into the woods. It was very warm.

"Listen! More water!" Gon cried, catching Leorio by the hand.

"It is only another brook," said Leorio with a thankful heart. "He wants a drink." The trickle of water sounded very pleasant to the kids as they lay down once more to drink.

Gon was, surprisingly, too sleepy to eat. Kurapika quickly found a dry spot thick with moss between two stones. Upon this moss the three children spread the hay in the shape of an oval bed. Gon tumbled into it with a great sigh of satisfaction and tucked himself in.

"Pine needles up here, Kurapika," called Leorio from the slope. Each of them quickly scraped together a fragrant pile for a pillow and once more lay down to sleep, with hardly a thought of fear.

"I only hope we won't have a thunderstorm," said Kurapika to himself, as he shut his tired eyes.

And he did not open them for a long time, although the dark gray clouds piled higher and more thickly over the sleeping children.


	3. Shelter

When Kurapika opened his eyes, it must have been about ten o'clock in the morning. He sat up and looked all around him. He could see dimly the opening where they had come into the woods, and that his friends were still safely by his side, looked up at the sky. At first, he thought it must still be night, and then he realized that the darkness was caused by an approaching storm.

"Great, what shall we do now?" demanded Kurapika of the air. Gon must have been so tired that his senses didn’t wake him of the approaching storm.

He got up and looked in every direction for shelter-- even walked quite a way into the woods, and down a hill. There he stood with nothing viable, not knowing what to do next.

"I have to wake Leorio up," he said at last. "Only he’ll be angered at nothing and be a pain to be around."

As he spoke he glanced into the forest, but his feet felt as if they were nailed to the ground. He could not stir. Faintly outlined among the trees, Kurapika saw an old freight or box car. His first thought was one of fear; his second, hope for shelter. As he thought of shelter, his feet moved, and he stumbled toward it.

It really was a freight car: it stood on rusty broken rails which were nearly covered with dead leaves. Then the thunder cracked overhead, and Kurapika came to his usual senses, then started back for Leorio, flying like the wind. Upon returning, Kurapika skidded to a stop in front of a very awake, anxious Leorio, whom looked overhead. He had not noticed that Kurapika was missing.

"Come!" panted Kurapika. "I've found a place! Hurry! hurry!"

Leorio did not stop to ask questions. He nudged at Gon, telling him to gather up the hay, then they ran headlong through the thick underbrush in Kurapika's wake, seeing their way only too well by the sharp flashes of lightning.

"It's beginning to sprinkle!" gasped Gon.

"We'll get there, all right," Kurapika shouted back. "It's not far. Be all ready to help me open the door when we get there!"

By sheer good fortune, a big tree stump stood under the door of the freight car, or the kids never could have opened it. As it was, Kurapika sprang on the stump and Leorio, pausing to help Gon onto the stump to help, did likewise. Together they rolled back the heavy door about a foot.

"That's enough," panted Kurapika.

"No," said Leorio growled quietly and pulled out his knife. "I must see first if anyone is in there."

"It will rain!" protested Gon. "Nothing will hurt me."

Kurapika shot a knowing glare down at the child, and Gon knew it was useless to argue with Leorio _and_ Kurapika, so he hastily groped in the bag for the matches and handed them to him brother. It must be confessed that Kurapika held his breath while Leorio struck one and peered about inside the car.

"All's well!" he reported. "Come in, everybody!"

Gon passed the hay up to his brother, and crawled in himself. Then Kurapika, taking one last look at the angry sky and waving trees, climbed in after him.

The two children managed to roll the door back so that the crack was completely closed before the storm broke. But at that very instant, it broke with a vengeance. It seemed to the children that the sky would split, so sharp were the cracks of thunder. However, not a drop of rain reached them in their roomy retreat. They could see nothing at all, for the freight car was tightly made, and all outside was nearly as black as night. Through it all, Leorio slept on.

Presently, the thunder grew fainter and rumbled away down the valley, and the rain spent itself. Only the drip from the trees on the top of the car could be heard. Finally, Leorio ventured to open the door.

He knelt on his hands and knees and thrust his head out.

The warm sunlight was filtering through the trees, making golden pools of light here and there. Beautiful trees, pines and white birches and oaks, grew thickly around and the ground was carpeted with flowers and wonderful ferns more than a yard high. Most miraculous of all was a miniature waterfall, small but perfect, where the same little brown brook fell gracefully over some ledges and danced away down the glen.

In an instant Kurapika and Gon were looking over Leorio's shoulder at the pretty sight.

"How different everything looks with the sun shining!" exclaimed Leorio cheerily. "Things will soon be dry at this rate."

"It must be about noon," observed Gon, looking at the sun, and as he spoke, the faint echo of mill bells in the distance was heard.

"Leorio!" said Gon sharply, caught up in the thrill of the sights. "Let's _live_ here!"

"Live here?" repeated Leorio dully.

"Yes! Why not?" replied Gon. "Nobody uses this car, and it's dry and warm. We're quite far away. And yet we are near enough to a town so we can buy things. _And_ we're near water," Gon protested.

Kurapika patted his friend on the shoulder. "So we are, Gon," he said—"the most important thing of all."

"But—" Leorio continued Kurapika’s train of thought “We don’t know anything about the area, and we’re still looking for-”

" _Please_ , Leorio," Gon asked excitedly. "I could make this old freight car into the coolest little house, with beds, and chairs, and a table—and dishes—" His stomach loudly interrupted him.

"We'll have something to eat right away, Gon, but we can’t stay." said Leorio, thankful it was no worse. For he himself was beginning to see what a cozy home the car really would make, as the more childish part of him deep down was reminded of playing games like this with his childhood friend Pietro.

Kurapika cut the last loaf of bread into four pieces, but alas! it was very dry. The children were so hungry that they tore it with their teeth like little dogs, but Gon was nearly crying. He did not actually cry, however, for he knew it was better than nothing at all.

"I wish we had milk," said Kurapika quietly to Leorio.

"We _shall_ have milk," replied Leorio. "I'll go down the railroad track to the town and get some."

Kurapika counted out a dollar in ten dimes and handed it to Leorio. "By the time our four dollars are gone, you will have some work to do," he said.

All the same, Leorio did not like to begin his trip. "I hate to leave you alone, Kurapika!" he said miserably.

"Oh, don't you worry," began Kurapika lightly. "We'll have a surprise for you when you come back. You just wait and see!" And he nodded his head wisely as Leorio walked slowly off through the woods.

The moment he was out of sight he turned to Gon. "Gon," he said, "what do you think we're going to do? Do you know what I saw over in the sunny part of the woods?”

“Oh, oh! I saw some blueberries!" excitedly cried Gon.

“Good eye!” The older boy praised.

"Can't we have some blueberries and milk?"

"We certainly—" began Kurapika, but the sentence never was finished, for a sharp crackle of dry leaves was heard. Something was moving in the woods.


End file.
